Back in the Day: April 16th - Crystal Palace Promotion All But Confirmed in 1994

Back in the Day

Monday, 16 April, 2018

Tuesday 16th April 1968

Crystal Palace 6-0 Norwich City

League Division Two – Att: 7,745

Manager: Bert Head

Crystal Palace snapped a six match winless run in emphatic fashion at Selhurst Park. Bobby Woodruff (2), Tom Vansittart (2), Mark Lazarus and Danny Light scored the goals that gave a taste of things to come in SE25 – the following season Palace would get promoted to the top flight for the first time.

Vansittart (pictured below) came through the Palace youth ranks and made just 11 appearances across three season for the Eagles – his two goals in this match made up the majority of the three that he would score in his entire career.

Saturday 16th April 1994

Luton Town 0-1 Crystal Palace

League Division One – Att: 9,880

Manager: Alan Smith

The Eagles all but confirmed their immediate return to the Premier League with three games to spare. Chris Coleman (1) scored the only goal of the game, and the three points were enough to put Alan Smith’s men beyond the reach of third placed Leicester City. Only Millwall, way down 8th (but having played only 39 games), could catch Palace, but their 2-2 draw with Forest the following day put to bed the unlikely scenario of the Lions overhauling the Eagles.

A Simon Rodger corner was flicked on at the near post and Coleman hammered home a left footed volley at the back post. The woodwork was rattled twice in the second half and Jurgen Sommer pulled off an incredible save to deny Palace a killer second - but Coleman's strike would be enough to seal the 25th win of the season.

Saturday 16th April 2005

Crystal Palace 3-3 Norwich City

Premier League – Att: 25,754

Manager: Iain Dowie

Norwich City travelled to Selhurst Park for a relegation six pointer – neither team did themselves any favours.

Joonas Kolkka (5) got the hosts off to the perfect start after just five minutes, smashing in Michael Hughes free kick delivery from a tight angle and before Norwich levelled through Dean Ashton (22) the hosts had had three very strong penalty appeals waved away by Rob Styles.

Just eleven seconds into the second half, Ashton (46) put the Canaries ahead and former Palace striker Leon McKenzie (53) made it 3-1 six minutes later, stunning Selhurst in the process.

The Eagles refused to let their heads drop, however, and Michael Hughes (73) nodded home an Andy Johnson centre with just over fifteen minutes left on the clock before Palace were finally awarded a penalty ten minutes later. Johnson was fouled by Jason Shackell and landed horribly on his head, but he managed to climb to his feet and convert his 19th goal of the season and his 9th penalty of the campaign.

Wednesday 16th April 2014

Everton 2-3 Crystal Palace

Premier League – Att: 39,333

Manager: Tony Pulis

A win for the Eagles would put them on the magical 40 points mark, but a win for the Toffees would see them climb above Arsenal and into the fourth Champions League spot. The game had been rescheduled after the weather claimed the fixture in February – and it worked completely in the visitors favour.

Having won the last three matches without conceding a goal, Tony Pulis’ men turned up as the form team in the division with the form player in Jason Puncheon, who had scored three goals in his previous two matches – it took Punch just 23 minutes to fire Palace into the lead and put Goodison Park on edge.

Four minutes after the break and the travelling support were in dreamland when Scott Dann (49) bulleted a header past Tim Howard but a Steven Naismith (61) tap in, just after the hour, injected an element of belief into the hosts.

Everton flooded men forward looking for an equaliser and this left them vulnerable on the break. There were several warning shots across the bails before Cameron Jerome (73) restored the two goal cushion with an incredible two touch finish.

Kevin Mirallas (86) scored to ensure a nervy finish, but the Eagles would hold on for a famous win. With the away fans celebrating and the home fans shell shocked, I was amazed to hear the Everton stadium announcer stay extremely classy in defeat – “Congratulations to Crystal Palace – and we’ll see you next season.”